Recent posts by J Anders

J Scarnucci wrote: Not really sure where pizza biz is heading. I suffered a fire in my truck this spring. I built a new truck but my heart isnt in it like it was. Sooooo much damn work trying to do it by myself.

That is really rough J.. I have a Chevrolet Express sitting in the backyard that needs a new motor put into it but without any real spousal support my heart just isn't in messing with it. Same van as yours is based on, mine is a 2003 3/4 ton cargo van. I imagine that eventually it'll get done, probably next spring. Could paint it up and fix the rust this fall, have most of the materials, but why bother?

Sounds like that's where you're at in a similar way as well.

Too bad you couldn't just take the pizza oven and put it on a small trailer, but then you'd need to have a commissary kitchen I'd imagine and that's more $$ there too.

I would like to say that if a young lady knows of a fellow that she really likes- she ought to make the effort to be friends with him. If you grew up in the same community, have similar values, went to the same church/gathering places, and you really like who he has become and who he is- make a real effort to be friends with him or his family.

Let the family know that you really like their son and they will likely approve of you already. It's not enough to just smile and wink at a guy you're interested in that runs in your circles- you really have to put out the effort to show him that you like him.

Now, if he gets interested in you as dating material, I didn't say keep doing this. That is the time to disappear and let him pursue you... let him show you how much he wants you.

There is a game to be played and I don't think women put enough effort into the game and think that men are going to do all the work.

There are some things that someone could find out about you, that will instantly put them off, at least in the beginning.

I think it's important that you eventually come clean about every single thing that you think and do. Well, maybe everything except for explaining those porn spikes on your data plan.

For me, this means not bringing up the fact that I live at my job sites, in the first two minutes of a conversation. But, if we've been talking about a dozen other things, then it's not going to even be much of a surprise, since so much of what I talk about is rather unorthodox. By the time I've been talking to someone for 10 minutes, I'm able to easily explain why I've chosen to live at work and the financial benefits of not paying rent, while earning a good living.

Then there's my disdain for certain groups of people. Druggies, drunks and a few others. Eventually this is going to come out, but I don't think the first 2 minutes is the time for a long diatribe about who ought to be killed. Let's leave that up to George Carlin.

Sometimes a deal-killer just jumps out at you. An insistence on being religious is an obvious one for me. When there is something glaringly obvious like that, I don't think it's a good idea to conceal it. Put it out there and you can part as friends.

I've had women present deal killers, completely accidentally. One woman describe a a litany of problems she had had with various exes. Every man she had ever known was no good. So I decided not to join that list. Another told me about her plan to cover most of her body in tattoos. No thanks. But mostly it's much more mild things that tell you when something couldn't possibly work out. It might be something as simple as learning that she believes aromatherapy can cure all cancers. That's a really nice thought, but that's where we need to part ways.
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Here's one that should have been a deal killer, but somehow it wasn't. My dad really didn't like to eat slop. He liked food that you could identify, because it wasn't covered in some sort of goo. And my mom is a slop cook. She could take nice steak and turn it into shoe leather or other palatable ingredients, and make them all into a sort of mush, fit for pigs. Dad ate that slop for 50 years. I remember one time, he said "didn't we have swill last night?" That didn't go over very well.

I'm a very good cook, and I think my mother deserves some of the credit. I got tired of the slop.

Very good post Dale.... that is funny about slop! My mother has cooked for her whole life, but has never really learned how to cook. Don't get me wrong, I think she's a pretty good cook, however, unorthodox, and cheap. Some of her creations include corn casserole, tuna salad sandwiches, pizza on bread slices, salmon loaf, jello with fruit, egg salad, things like that. My wife, on the other hand, likes to make steak and potatoes, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, ramen noodle soup, you know, the traditionals.

I've told my wife many many times "food is food, I don't give a flying fig what you cook" and she never seems to understand that concept.

One of my favorite dishes is grated potatoes cooked just until they don't taste raw anymore and topped with salsa, sour cream, and cheese. My wife hates it. Many times I will make Chinese potatoes- boil grated potatoes until they loose the raw crunch and then stir fry with other veggies topped with salsa, sour cream, and cheese. Incidentally, I read somewhere that you can have a very balanced diet with just potatoes and dairy!

Nick Marlowe wrote:Thanks J Anderson, I should have worded that better. Yes I knew there was one spring, however I had not seen the boxes, nor the second "Bonus" spring that I found later! Look every day for property around here. I have been a local here most of my life, actively seaching for property for about 3 years now. I was online every day and still missed opportunities for beautiful land just because a good piece of property with everything a homesteader could want goes quick! And believe it or not relatively cheap compared to many other places. Thanks for the response and good luck finding a place.

Do you care to say how much per acre? Most of the places I'm looking at are around $2k per acre. A few places more and a few places less. It really depends. Have thought about renting something for awhile down there but I have such a wide area that could interest me that it's difficult. Hard to rent somewhere when I am open to places that are 150 miles away from where I might want to rent!

Nick Marlowe wrote:Hello everyone, I was hoping to find some help from someone who has knowledge or experience of tapping into a spring like mine. I bought 22 acres in Eureka Springs Arkansas and discovered two springs on the property that had previous spring boxes. The springs start at about 1400 ft altitude and flow into a series of creeks, lakes and finally ending in Beaver Lake. The pictures below are of the spring where the most construction had taken place. There are at least three holding/cistern boxes that I have uncovered so far, so my guess is that this spring at one time had good flow. The spring its self appears to seep through the cracks in the different layers of rock. Interestingly enough, on the opposite side of the ridge is the other spring that is at the same altitude. I was wondering if I can hammer a rock bar into the cracks in the rock where the water is flowing, in hopes of creating a larger space for water to flow? If this is not the best way would someone please lend some knowledge my way? I would also like to draw/upload some pictures of the past configuration so that someone could explain how/why it worked.

Future plans for the springs on the property include Ram pumps where applicable, holding stations and irrigation. We discovered almost our entire property is covered in blueberries and I just got several thousand feet of chicken house pvc water dispensers perfect for irrigating for $100!! (Just had to brag on my find!)

Any help/advice or joke is appreciated!

Nice find! They didn't tell you that you had a spring on the property when you bought it?

I've been looking for land down that way but won't have cash until this winter. Have a pretty good read on available property and what's been available for a long time as well as what's in demand and what's not in demand.

Leftists aren't a thing. It's just a lazy way that Rightists (see what I did there? How marginalised might that make a right-winger feel?) have taken to describe anyone not as far-right on the political spectrum as they themselves are, which is pretty much anyone.

A religious reading of recent history could describe the evangelical Christian right as having elected the antchrist, who pays lipservice to their beliefs but holds none of them. I think he is taking the country he is running (into the ground) the same direction he's taken about every business he's owned: bankruptcy. After all, what is the value of all of Wall Street if its all in USD as it takes a hit against all other currencies?

I defy you to show me where in any recognised official document it clearly states that Communists are illegal in the USA.

It is less than useful hyperbole to refer to anyone that holds political beliefs to the left of yours as communists. It is also inaccurate.

I wish people who liked to voice their political opinions understood the other side better, instead of slamming the door on conversation with dog whistles and willful lack of understanding. Since when has it been desireable to embrace ignorance and division over intelligent discourse that brings us together?

As far as i know, the US has its political Left, which sits just to the right of everyone else's Centre, its political Right, whose extreme looks a lot like either Theocracy or Fascism, and Libertarians of every flavour along that spectrum.

The white evangelical right are in decline, which is why they were prepared to compromise everything to elect Herr Drumpf. All they had was their supposed moral high ground. What is now left to them?

When you dig deeper into Wall Street you will find that the vast majority of people who work there are of one specific association and once you did deeper into that specific association you will understand what they are really trying to do.

The Evangelical Christian Right has no clue what they are doing and they are stooges for the specific association that I just mentioned. Trump is not the Anti-Christ and he is restoring the United States to it's Christian foundations. The Anti-Christ will rise to power in Kazakhstan and his base will be Astana.

The Political Left here in the United States has very little in common with the Liberals, and traditionally, I believe that, we never had a Political Left that was in serious power before big money started pouring into politics and voting machines started rigging elections.

Reading Dales posts and I would like to say that he has some VERY interesting advice. I appreciate what you are posting.

When my father died, a lady called at the funeral. My father had complimented her on her dress in the grocery store around 20 years before and she had never forgotten that. Showed me how much power a compliment has.

What others are saying in this thread about finding common activities (to do together) is incredibly important.

I didn't do anywhere near enough of that with my wife. When we were dating she told me that she loved gardening and canning and cooking and cleaning. Told is as far as any of that went. The first year we were married we walked the ditches near my mom's house and picked up pop cans. That was the last time that happened. 7 years ago. I go for 3 mile walks around town about twice a week now, she has no interest in walking whatsoever. We met when we were both working at a Salvation Army camp... she now has no interest in doing that again, and I would love to work at camps with my spouse for the summer. I thought she was a pretty hard worker and always had a smile on her face at the time... now it's the complete opposite. She has a job as a home maker in a home for mentally disabled people and she is now a supervisor there. Drives me absolutely nuts because I'm a 9-5 guy and her job is 3-11 and she likes to sleep all day until it's time for her to go to work.

There's been a couple years where we have done some canning together but now it's just "that'll make the house too hot" or some other excuse. We married after dating for 3 months. A bit of a mistake but it's been alright other than the fact that we've no kids and she desperately wants kids- won't make the effort to remedy her health so she can have kids though.

I don't know what a man can do to remedy that other than making sure that you marry a woman that is in reasonable physical condition, has a mother who is in reasonable physical condition, and when you visit her parents that they have a reasonable habits such as cooking good food and the women of the house actually do the cooking and the cleaning if that's what you are looking for. Lifelong habits are hard to break.

I also think that it's extremely difficult for disabled people (me, hard of hearing) to marry non-disabled people who haven't' grown up with a family member with that disability. My wife grew up with a brother who was bedridden so she has some experience with it but it's still very difficult, and after 7 years she still hasn't learned much sign language at all. I speak quite well but it's really handy to know sign language so I'm not saying what all the time.

If someone were wondering how long to date- if you do not know for a fact that this person you are dating has established habits (a full pantry of things that they've canned, if that's your thing, a large garden that's well tended, if that's your thing, etc.) date them for two or three years before you marry them.